Jack arrived to find Gwen standing outside the door to the patient's room, barring the entryway from several military looking types. He sighed and Ianto glanced over at him briefly, reading his thoughts from his reaction. Ianto was looking battered and bruised and a bit worse for wear at the moment, but he was still acting under his own power, despite the great drain the day had been on him. That in itself was a miracle in Gwen's opinion as she watched them approach. Colonel Harburson trailed behind them, his bulk making it hard to keep up with the pace of the two men from Torchwood.
'This is our facility, we have the right to question the patient,' one of the officers whinged petulantly. Gwen didn't budge.
'Do it and we move him,' Jack said in a clipped tone that brooked no argument from the people milling before him. They started, surprised by his sudden appearance and one of the junior officers gulped when they looked him in the face. Jack turned back towards Harburson.
'This one is Torchwood's,' the man said gruffly. 'They have the lead on this one.' Jack gave him a curt nod.
'We'll share what we have when we can but right now you are impeding our ability to get this done, so let's all be friends and you can get out of our way until we're ready to talk to you.' Jack flashed a charming smile at the group of officers outside the door. The man in front could see his CO standing behind the Torchwood team and Colonel Harburson shook his head warningly. Reluctantly the man acquiesced and stepped away from the door. The others in the group followed his lead, clearing the doorway in front of Gwen. Jack pivoted in place and kept his eye on the group for a long moment before dismissing them and turning back to Gwen.
'What's the status?' He asked in a low voice, knowing that the UNIT officers were still behind him. Ianto moved into position so that the two men blocked Gwen from sight.
'He's stable,' Gwen said. 'They're in the process of removing the thorns. I figured that getting that drug out of him was a first priority and that you wouldn't mind someone else doing it.' Reflexively she wiggled her fingers. It had been hard work with the tweezers and she knew she was glad to have someone else do it this time. Jack nodded and peered over her shoulder through the window. He stared at the team working over the young man on the table and sighed. Ianto glanced sideways at him, but said nothing.
In a mercurial change of mood Jack spun back towards the colonel. 'You still have the best café in UNIT here?' Colonel Harburson grinned in response and patted his stomach.
'Correction Captain, we have the best damned café of any organisation, anywhere,' he said. Jack glanced down at the colonel's rather large frame before looking back up with a chuckle. 'And right now, that's the best damned idea you've had yet. Let's get some grub and maybe I can wheedle a few more details out of you.'
'Depends on how good the grub is,' Jack said, his posture releasing some of the tautness that had been there since he had arrived on the scene back in Llwynywermod. He nodded to Ianto who took position in the doorway and motioned Gwen to go with Jack.
'You don't need to do that,' Colonel Harburson said. 'No one here will bother the patient. I've given my word and my staff will follow. Besides son, you look like death warmed over. Need to get some food into you.'
Jack turned and glanced from Gwen to Ianto. 'I agree. I trust Richard to make sure that no one will disturb the patient. The goal right now is to stabilize him enough to get some answers. Besides, the food is really good here, if I remember correctly from my last visit.' He exchanged a look with Ianto who nodded in response. Ianto offered his arm to Gwen who took it, knowing that it wasn't an act of chivalry so much as a request for support. They were determined to show no weakness in front of UNIT, but their resources were sadly depleted after the day they had had. The three Torchwood personnel followed behind the colonel, the UNIT staff parting to let them pass.
#
'He's impossible.' Gwen sat with her chin in hand as she watched Jack and Richard Harburson laugh as they talked at a nearby table. She was annoyed at her boss at the moment who had gone from being adversarial to downright jovial with the UNIT commander. 'I just don't know how to read him sometimes,' she muttered as she stared intently at the two.
'Jack Harkness defies reading,' Ianto commented as he wiped the crumbs off the table and pooled them onto his napkin. 'You'll just give yourself a headache if you think about it too much.'
'How do you stand it?' Gwen asked, turning to glance at her team mate. 'If it drives me mad at times it must drive you absolutely nutters.' Ianto shrugged.
'Jack is Jack. There is no standing anything because once you accept that, you accept him for what he is,' he finally commented. They had been sitting in the café for the last hour and Ianto was grateful for the respite. He was bone tired and not inclined to care much about what his boss did at the moment. They had a relationship which defied classification, and when it came to Torchwood, Ianto was inclined to follow Jack's lead. It wasn't that Jack was always right – far from it. But until there was a reason to question his decision or actions regarding something they were doing, Ianto was inclined to let it go. He definitely wasn't minded to examine it the way Gwen always wanted to.
'The way he's acting right now he could hand this whole thing over to UNIT and leave us without any answers,' she said darkly. Ianto only shook his head. Jack would do no such thing. He was, what he would no doubt tell them later, in the act of buttering Harburson up. Ianto had seen him do it enough times that the pattern was very recognisable.
'Jack won't do that,' he said and pushed back his chair to stand a heartbeat before Jack did the same. Gwen shook her head. She let Ianto take their trash and put it in the bin before they approached Jack and the Colonel.
'I have a hunch that our patient might be ready now. Shall we go see?' Jack asked. Gwen nodded and slanted a glance at the Colonel. 'Richard, if we find out anything, you'll be the first to know.'
'Right,' the other man said. He gave a nod to Jack's subordinates and strolled off in the other direction.
'Did you slip something into his coffee?' Gwen asked suspiciously as she peered after the man. Jack only chuckled but shook his head.
'Didn't need to. All the man wanted was some information. So I gave him enough to whet his appetite but not enough to really tell him anything,' Jack said as he indicated the doorway with his hand. Gwen started out, followed by the two men. 'This way he knows more than his staff and can look superior, and that's all that matters.'
'Got to love the military mind,' Ianto said softly and Jack looked at him. He opened his mouth but Ianto forestalled him with a raised hand. 'And before you ask, I'm fine. Even though the coffee was burnt.'
'Tasted all right to me,' Gwen said as she pressed the button for the lift that would take them back to the floor that their patient was on. She didn't bother to look back at her colleague. 'Don't roll your eyes at me.'
'Didn't,' Ianto said in an unruffled tone. 'I'm long past the point of being shocked by your dilapidated taste buds.'
'That's because she's eaten too many of Rhys' curries,' Jack quipped as the trio entered the lift. This time it was Gwen who rolled her eyes in response. Ianto leaned back against the wall, casually crossing his arms, but Jack kept a careful eye on him.
'Oh, as if takeaway all the time has nothing to do with it,' she countered. They bickered amiably to one another all the way down the hallway and past the posted guard who stood stiffly at attention while they walked. Gwen noticed with amusement the look of confusion on the young man's face as he listened to some of the things they were saying, but her attention was diverted by their arrival at the door of their patient's room. Jack had relaxed, knowing that if Ianto were feeling chipper enough to be snarky that he was feeling well enough to work. They hadn't had a chance to talk since the working earlier in the day and while Jack was concerned, it wasn't enough for him to make them stop and assess what was going on. He wanted them to get through what they could before they had to circle back and discuss everything that had gone on that day. He stopped by the door and looked in.
All was quiet. Their victim was lying on the hospital bed, all signs of the staff gone along with the thorns that had pierced his skin. Their marks still remained as a mute reminder to what had happened to him, but a quick glance at the monitoring equipment proved that his vital signs were stable. Gwen stifled a sigh of relief. This man represented their first real break in this case and she was hoping against hope that he would be able to shed some light on the group and what they were trying to do.
Jack passed a keycard over the sensor to unlock it, opening the door and motioning for Ianto and Gwen to enter. Ianto indicated that Gwen should go first before following behind her. Jack entered and closed the door behind him, turning the lock and closing the blinds a bit to give them privacy from anyone passing by.
Ianto moved to stand on the other side of the bed from where Gwen had paused and stared down at the man. Gwen watched him and wondered what he was thinking as he carefully lifted the sheet and scanned the man's body before tucking it back around him. Jack crossed his arms, waiting for them to make whatever assessments that they were going to make. Gwen picked up the chart, shaking her head over how much skill she had gained in her years at Torchwood that she actually understood what she was looking at.
'Doctor Cooper?' Jack asked, his voice laced with amusement. 'What can you tell me?'
'Nothing that you couldn't find out for yourself,' she retorted with a pointed glance at the leather clad wrist strap. 'And probably in more detail, too.' Ianto snorted softly in response as Jack grinned.
'Now where is the fun in that?' He asked as his second gazed at him with a sour expression on her face. 'Uh, uh, uh, careful, your face will get stuck like that if you do that any longer.'
'Oh for the love of God,' she muttered, suddenly losing patience after the day they'd had. She dropped the chart down onto the bed. 'This isn't supposed to be about having fun, Jack. This is about getting information. This man almost died out there! It's a miracle that we not only got there in time but that we had these facilities here able to help this man. It isn't a game, Jack.'
'No, it isn't,' he agreed equitably. 'But technology doesn't have all the answers, either. Don't discount the human eye and intuition, Gwen.' Gwen could see Ianto was tapping into his PDA and she looked from Jack to what Ianto was doing. 'And the two together can be a winning combination,' Jack finished and leaned against the end of the bed. 'Anything?'
Ianto was frowning as he gazed at the display in front of him. 'Elevated serotonin levels of course, which is to be expected. And rather than wait for UNIT to do a toxicology on the blood, I've taken a sample myself,' he went on, indicating the lead that snaked out of the bottom of the PDA and under the man's skin. He looked up. 'If I'm reading this right, at least one of the hallucinogens they used was henbane.' Jack raised an eyebrow in speculation.
'Henbane?' Gwen asked, not familiar with the word. Ianto nodded and he looked across the bed in her direction.
'Yes, a local variety of plant that can cause hallucinations. Some people have said that it makes them believe they can fly. So presumably the sacrifice was offering themselves up on the altar to be consumed by their heavenly god or goddess,' Ianto told her. 'But there are a lot of other chemicals showing up as well.'
'Like what?' Jack asked, his attention focused on Ianto.
'Thujone is pretty prominent,' Ianto responded. He continued before Gwen could ask what it was. 'You would know it as wormwood, and it can affect the central nervous system.'
'Someone knows their herbs and plants,' Jack muttered with a frown. Ianto nodded in response and pulled the lead out from under the man's skin. 'What else?'
'Hyoscyamine, which probably comes from belladonna,' Ianto replied. 'That is commonly used to create euphoria and sexual arousal. Which might explain part of the sacrifice, but not why they are sacrificing their acolytes.' He tapped on the screen. 'A lot of these are residuals of the ones I've already mentioned, but I'm sure if they're using traditional herb lore that it is a mix of whatever herbs are considered the most potent.'
'As well as whatever is in season,' Jack commented. 'So we know the what, but not the why.' He stared intently at the man in the bed.
'Which why?' Ianto asked and Jack glanced up at him in surprise. 'Why he was a willing sacrifice or why they are now doing human sacrifices?'
'And who is to say he is a willing victim?' Gwen asked. Both men looked in her direction. 'Well, judging by what you said is in his bloodstream, maybe he was given something that made him a willing sacrifice.'
'Maybe,' Jack said, considering the idea. 'It would make sense, though if it were done for religious fervor then the hallucinogens would have nothing to do with the willingness of the victim. The personal ecstasy of sacrificing oneself might be enough of an impetus.' He stared intently at the man and Gwen wondered if he was trying to just figure it all out by just looking at him. She turned back to the man and studied him.
'We're being stupid,' she muttered and reached into the bag slung over her shoulder. Opening it, she rummaged deep inside, looking for something.
'Pardon?' Ianto commented, sharing a mystified glance with Jack. Gwen let out a noise of triumph, pulling her own PDA out of the bag. Holding it over the man's face, she took a photo, and then tapped the screen.
'I'm using my intuition,' she told him as she worked. 'Which also happens to use some handy technology as well.' Jack didn't comment but waited for her to continue. 'You know what? We're getting sloppy.'
'Us? Sloppy? How?' Jack asked, who didn't seem perturbed by Gwen's declaration. In fact, he seemed annoyingly amused by her exclamation. That in itself aggravated her even more.
'Oh, where do I begin?' Ianto commented dryly.
'Hey! I didn't ask you!' Jack said in an affronted voice as he turned and looked at Ianto. 'I was talking to her.' He gestured in Gwen's direction. 'How are we sloppy?'
'By not using the skills and technology we have in front of us,' Gwen replied. 'Such as that computer program that Tosh put together for us that allows us to do some rather serious facial recognition.' Ianto sighed as he realized what she was doing. 'And with some luck,' she continued as she stared intently at the screen which was flipping through images faster than her eye could track, 'we'll get an I.D. And that should get us some information which will be useful.'
'Very good,' Jack said approvingly, as if he were proud of her accomplishment. 'See? Nothing beats human intuition.'
'Unless you're hiding a royal straight flush,' Ianto commented as he bent over the bed and lifted one of the man's eyelids. He then urged the man's mouth open and shone a small torch in the throat. Jack moved around from the end of the bed and leaned against the side to see what Ianto was doing.
'Good teeth,' he commented. 'That's unusual in itself for the British Isles.' Both of his operatives shot him sour glances and he grinned before turning his attention back to what Ianto was doing. 'What are you looking for now?' He was curious now about what they might find.
'Whether our friend ingested anything during the ritual,' Ianto replied. 'At least see if there are any traces in the mouth.' He reached for the jar with the cotton swabs on the nightstand and scraped it against the side of the man's cheek. 'Could you get a baggie for me, please?' He asked. Jack reached into a coat pocket and retrieved a crumpled piece of plastic. After making sure it didn't have any tears, he held it open under Ianto's hand, letting the other man drop the swab into the bag. Sealing it, he placed it on the tray. Jack turned his attention to Gwen, but she was still staring at the screen in her hands.
'I think we've done everything we can right now,' he finally said as Ianto stood up with a sigh. The long day was finally getting to him. Jack looked over at Gwen again who was almost cross-eyed as she focused on her PDA. 'I think it's time to get some rest and take turns watching our friend here.'
'But I'll be getting results any minute,' Gwen protested. She gave Jack a look of annoyance before glancing back down at her screen.
'Sure, so set an alarm. Beats staring at the screen and willing a result,' Jack told her. He moved around the bed and pulled a chair from against the wall, dragging it over to where Ianto was standing. He hadn't missed that the other man was leaning against the bed for support. 'Sit down before you fall over.'
'I'm fine, Jack,' Ianto said, but didn't really fight as the other man put a hand on his shoulder and forced him to sit down. He was on the last dregs of his reserves and the headache he had avoided earlier was lurking just on the edges of his mind. He let out a sigh and leaned his head back against Jack's stomach as the other man began to massage his shoulders. 'Oh, that's good.'
'Thought it might be,' Jack said with a smile. 'Gwen, time for us to take a break. Chances are this guy is going to be out for a while. And once he comes back he's going to be completely disoriented, at least until the drugs are out of his system. And once they are, we'll have a man with some issues on our hands.' Gwen blinked at him blearily, trying to follow his thought process but failing after the day they had all had. 'We don't know what his mental state is going to be. If he was indeed willing before the drugs hit his system then we'll be dealing with a man who will be pretty disappointed to be alive. He will have failed whatever it was that they were attempting to accomplish. Add to that he's also been castrated and well, that is going probably be an issue as well.' He was working his fingers up the back of Ianto's neck, slowly digging into the tense muscles that he found there. 'Relax!' He commanded.
'I am relaxed,' Ianto murmured, totally lost in what Jack was doing with his hands. He ignored the scraping of the chair that Gwen dragged over as she finally gave into reason and sat down. She heaved out a heavy sigh and sat back, her PDA on the bed still working away at the facial recognition program. He closed his eyes and just let Jack administer one of the best massages he had ever had in his life. The impending headache began to retreat and he let out a long sigh.
Jack looked down at the man seated before him. Ianto had certainly taken one for the team again. He never complained and just went about his work. Jack glanced up and looked at Gwen, who had rested her head on her arms as she leaned against the bed. They had both gone above and beyond the call of duty, pushing themselves to their limits and beyond. The recent events brought home to him once again the need to recruit and bring on more people. He just needed to find the right ones.
'I'm so tired,' Gwen moaned, her voice muffled by her arms. 'Ianto, how can you even be conscious? You were barely standing the last time, but this time you're still functioning. I don't know how you did it.'
'I had help this time,' Ianto admitted. He rolled his head from side to side as the muscles loosened further.
'Yeah, about that,' Jack finally commented, the tone of his voice making Gwen look up at him. A glance confirmed what his voice had warned, which was that his face had that shuttered and closed down look. Whatever it was that had assisted them in the working had him on edge. 'Ianto, what did you see?'
'Didn't see much of anything,' Ianto replied slowly. 'There was a lot of stuff swirling in the circle. And it wasn't what I saw so much as what I felt.' Jack nodded. Some of it had come through their link. Gwen sat up straighter. Emotions were something she understood. It led to her intuitive leaps of judgment. To hear Ianto make a comment like that definitely caught her attention.
'So what did you feel?' Jack asked as he loosened Ianto's tie and undid the top button of his shirt, seeking to relax him further. Ianto didn't protest and Gwen could tell that he wasn't even aware of what Jack had done. 'Can you tell us?'
Ianto paused for a long moment while he considered his answer. 'How does one describe awe? Jack, I know where you're going to go with this one, but I just can't articulate it very well. If I were to take a leap, I would have said that we were in the presence of an angel.' Gwen nodded. It had been her thought, too. Jack sighed and Ianto opened his eyes to look upwards. 'You're thinking an alien, aren't you?'
'It's more probable than a biblical being,' Jack responded. Gwen shook her head at him.
'Jack,' Gwen remonstrated. 'Have a little faith here. Why not an angel? After all, we were dealing with a pretty horrific pagan ritual. Why wouldn't a higher being take notice of what we were doing and assist us?'
'And why wouldn't an alien, if they got something out of the deal as well?' Jack asked in a reasonable tone. 'And why didn't it help the last time we did this at the museum?' The two looked at him mutely for a moment. 'Aliens don't always know how to take the lift.'
'Oh, come on Jack!' Gwen exclaimed. 'Is it so hard to believe in divine intervention? Maybe it didn't help last time because it knew we could handle it, but this time with the two sites it was just too much.' She turned to look at Ianto. 'What did you feel?'
'Besides feeling rather insignificant and humble?' Ianto asked with a shaky laugh as he sought to remember the moment. He closed his eyes and thought, tilting his head back as if he were looking up at whatever being had appeared above the standing stone. 'Strength,' he went on. 'Anger, but not at me. I would call it righteous anger.' Jack sighed, wondering how much Ianto was now thinking of things after the fact or whether it was something that had really happened. He couldn't deny that they had some help from something. Jack bowed his head and groaned, making both Ianto and Gwen look at him anxiously.
'I'm stupid,' he muttered as he removed his hands from Ianto's shoulders. He flipped open the cover of his vortex manipulator and stared at it intently. 'Before we started this afternoon I set this to record, because I wanted a record for the archives. I also set the cameras in the SUV to do the same.' He tapped at the screen and frowned.
'What is it?' Gwen asked. 'What did you get?' Jack looked up with a frown.
'Nothing.' He shook his head. 'That's impossible.' He tapped again at his controls, but there was a period of time that was just blank. There was a recording but it was just black. 'I'll have to check the SUV when we get back.'
'I bet it will be the same,' Ianto replied. 'A large electromagnetic pulse would do something like that.'
'No, not to this,' Jack said and pointed a finger to his wrist strap. 'It would be impervious.' He looked rather unhappy, though. Because it meant that something had the ability to cloak itself to his technology, or it was indeed metaphysical in nature and therefore unable to be recorded by anything other than human senses.
'Maybe whatever it was defies definition,' Gwen suggested. They thought about that for a moment before a low moan distracted them. Gwen spun around to look at the man in the bed. 'Is he conscious already?'
'We have been here a while,' Ianto said with a glance towards his watch. 'With the thorns removed, the drugs would probably leave his system.' Jack moved past him to the head of the bed where he bent over the man and scanned him with his vortex manipulator.
'Anything?' Gwen asked. Jack shook his head and then frowned, tapping the manipulator. 'Did you break it?'
'No,' Jack said and pointedly turned away from her. Ianto stifled a tired chuckle at their interaction. 'Just odd.'
'What's odd?' Ianto didn't have the strength to get up and look. So he decided to be forthright and just ask Jack for the answer.
'By all rights this man should have died on the stone,' Jack murmured. He turned and leaned across the bed, picking up the chart that Gwen had dropped earlier. Jack scanned the chart and then looked back at his manipulator, shaking his head. 'In fact, I think he was dead.'
'Was?' Ianto asked. 'Obviously he isn't now so how did that happen?'
'Divine intervention?' Gwen asked and the two men stared at her across the bed. 'Well, do you have a better idea?'
'The thought of a supreme being taking an interest in what we do gives me the willies,' Jack said with an overtly theatrical shudder. 'Call me a cynic, but in the end it is always some alien playing god in a lower tech world.' He watched as Gwen got up and went over to the bed as their victim moaned again. She scanned his face, wondering whether they would finally get the answers that they needed in order to stop the Adoliat from doing this again. She thought about what Jack had just said. This man had been clinically dead and something had brought him back to life. She wondered whether it was a mercy, given his physical state. She tried to think of why someone would be willing to sacrifice themselves in something like this and couldn't come up with an answer. She stared down pensively at the man as he slowly came back to consciousness.
'Hi,' she said in a low voice. 'My name is Gwen,' she continued, the lilt of her Welsh accent softening the words. 'I'm here to help you.'
'Who?' The man croaked out as he stared blearily at the face hovering above him. 'Where?'
'You're in hospital,' Gwen said, tucking the sheet around the young man's shoulders. She heard a faint ping from her PDA and she smiled before sliding it up the bed to where she could see it. 'Daniel, is it?' She asked after glancing down at the device. 'Daniel, we're here to help.' The young man stared up at her with a look of incomprehension, as if he didn't understand what she was saying. Jack was about to step in and intervene when a horrified expression crossed the man's face and he began to scream after seeing Jack. He was babbling and both Jack and Ianto had to help restrain him, since his limbs were flailing about. Gwen tried to reason with him, to talk to him and calm him down, but it was obvious that he was extremely agitated. It took time to get him to stop, and to finally get something coherent out of him. Gwen took her time, cajoling him to talk. Eventually Jack and Ianto had to back off; as it seemed like the man was less hysterical when he was only focused on her. Ianto pulled Jack through the doorway, though it was difficult getting him to move.
'She can handle herself,' he told Jack who had been still protesting the eviction. 'Trust her.'
'I do,' Jack said as he peered through the gap in the blinds. 'I just don't trust him. That man is not sane, Ianto.'
'No, I don't suppose he is,' Ianto agreed mildly. 'But he also wasn't reacting to her, he was reacting to us.' Jack sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. 'So he's been programmed to respond to women in some way and sees other males as a threat.'
'Which tells us what?' Jack asked as he leaned against the window he had previously been peering through.
'Could be any number of things. Perhaps the group is made up of all women and the only male involved is the sacrificial victim,' Ianto suggested. Jack had a thoughtful look on his face has he considered that possibility. 'Maybe he was brainwashed into wanting to be a sacrifice.'
'That wouldn't explain why he reacted so violently to the sight of me,' Jack said. He could still hear Gwen's voice murmuring through the glass wall behind him. 'As if I was a threat.'
'Maybe you were,' Ianto replied. 'Depending on what he remembers, maybe seeing another male is an indication that someone else had been selected to represent them in the sacrifice instead of him.'
'Maybe,' Jack said with a frown. Something about this tickled at his memory, but when he tried to chase after the thought it skittered out of touch. He began pacing, not noticing that Ianto had moved over to the window sill to sit down. Had he been more observant he would have noticed the trembling in the other man's hands. Ianto saw it though, and he firmly clasped his hands over his knees. He didn't want Jack to notice. The headache that had been lurking in the back of his head came to the forefront with a rush and he closed his eyes and bit his lip to stop himself from crying out in pain. He swallowed, trying to hold down the nausea that also threatened his equilibrium.
Jack was oblivious. Back and forth he paced the length of the corridor, from the door where their victim lay to the window sill where Ianto sat. He stared down at the scuffed tiles, deep in thought. The sound of the door squeaking open drew his attention and he moved back as Gwen slipped out of the opening and closed the door behind her.
'Well?' He asked. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
'Well,' she echoed. 'He's not too coherent. No surprise there. And he definitely felt threatened by you and Ianto in the room.' She turned towards her teammate and frowned, distracted for a moment. 'Sweetheart, are you okay?' She asked, brushing past Jack. He looked up, startled by her comment and noticed that Ianto was looking rather green. Cursing himself for his inattention, he followed her to the other end of the hallway.
'I'm fine,' Ianto said hoarsely. He had his eyes closed. 'Please, go on.'
'No, I don't think so,' she replied. She looked reproachfully at Jack who held his hands up as if trying to ward off her disapprobation. 'I think you need to lie down, Ianto.' She pursed her lips as she brought her hand up to feel his forehead. Ianto leaned into her touch, unable to argue any longer. 'Think you can stand? I'm pretty sure this wing is empty except for us.'
'Yeah,' Ianto responded. He pushed off the sill and stood up shakily. Jack immediately moved to his other side to support him and Ianto tried not to sag against him.
'I'll carry you if I have to,' Jack told him as he wrapped his arm around Ianto and helped him walk to the closest door which was right next to the room where their victim lay. 'Really, Ianto. You knew this was going to happen.'
'No, I didn't know,' Ianto muttered as Gwen tsked and opened the door. He stopped her from turning on the light. 'Don't, it will only bother me. Just help me over to the bed.' Together they shuffled over and Jack helped Ianto up onto the bed. Ianto lay down immediately, a clear sign that he wasn't feeling very well at all. He closed his eyes and rested his arm over them to block out the light from the hall. 'Oh, should have done this earlier.'
'Yeah, you should have,' Jack murmured. He pulled off Ianto's shoes and moved to loosen his belt, ignoring the noise of protest that Ianto made. 'Don't worry, you can keep your clothes on. But you're not going to be very comfortable with this stabbing into you.' Jack wiggled the buckle as he pulled the leather out of the loops and let it dangle onto the bed. 'Though I'd be happy to get naked with you if that would make you more comfortable.'
'It won't, sorry,' Ianto muttered. He was pretty sure he heard Gwen stifling a chuckle. The last thing he needed was an amorous Jack at the UNIT base with a Torchwood investigation going on. Especially one that had some many unresolved issues. 'Focus, Jack.'
'Oh, I'm very focused at the moment,' Jack murmured. Ianto felt his breath against his cheek, but didn't respond. He concentrated on his breathing as a way to control his nausea. It was helping, but barely. At least Jack was proving to be a distraction, which was exactly his intention. He was busy undoing the knot in Ianto's tie. He also encouraged Gwen to continue. Ianto listened to her talking and used that as a focal point for ignoring the way he was feeling. He knew it was going to be a hard crash, but hadn't anticipated the way it ended up happening. When he didn't suffer a backlash at first he thought he had gotten lucky. He should have known it would have been too much to ask for that he not have a reaction. Resolutely he ignored how he was feeling and concentrated on what she was saying.
'… so I think that's all we're going to get out of him for now. But he was disoriented enough that I got far more than I had been expecting,' she told Jack. 'Whether his information is still valid is a question.'
'Yeah, true,' Jack commented as he leaned against the wall next to the bed in which Ianto lay. 'We have to assume that the minute they felt that working snap that they would be warned someone was interfering with them. The question is whether they know whether he survived or not. If they are smart, they'd assume he did survive and that we would have a method of extracting information. If they're arrogant and think themselves impervious, they might be just cocky enough to stay put.'
'You know where they are?' Ianto asked. He started to open his eyes and sit up, but Jack placed a hand on his chest and pushed him back down again. 'Jack.'
'That's my name, don't wear it out,' Jack told him, not looking down. He was still staring at Gwen with an intense look on his face. 'Let me see your PDA.' Gwen gave him an odd look as he held out his hand. 'I can tie it into the mainframe and see if we can get some satellite readings from the location. Heat signatures, that sort of thing.' He felt Ianto fumbling underneath his hand and looked down. Ianto had pulled his own PDA out and handed it to Jack. Jack frowned. He had to be in bad shape if he didn't even make an attempt to do the search himself. 'How are you feeling, Ianto?'
'Been better,' Ianto said through gritted teeth. He felt the PDA leave his hand as Jack took it. He took shallow breaths, hoping that he could control the urge to vomit before he actually had to do something about it. With Gwen on one side of him and Jack on the other, it didn't leave him much in the way of options. He drifted in a haze as he heard Jack and Gwen talking over him. The feeling of Jack's hand resting on his chest was a reassuring anchor. Anchor, he thought. Jack had been that and more over the past week. He let his thoughts drift, thinking on the impressions from earlier. Had it indeed been an angel that had helped them or just another alien with an agenda? He wasn't the religious sort, so he thought that his natural scepticism would have had him leaning towards Jack's explanation. But something told him that assumption was wrong. He felt the mattress sag as Jack leaned against it and worked on the PDA. A hand brushed through his hair and he knew from the gentle touch that it was Gwen who was looking after him.
'Gwen, you need to rest as well,' he finally said while she waited for Jack to come up with something on his search.
'I'm fine love,' she said. He could hear the smile in the tone of her voice.
'Ianto's right, Gwen. We're all knackered. Why not go hit one of the beds on the other side of Daniel?' Jack asked. 'I'll be here to make sure Ianto gets some rest.'
'Oh, is that what you're calling it now?' Gwen asked with a cheeky smile. Ianto chuckled tiredly and he felt her lips brush against his forehead. 'All right, I'll go. But only because I do need some sleep if we're going to catch these people. Ianto, don't let Jack misbehave, yeah?'
'Yeah,' Ianto responded. He reached out blindly and grasped her hand. 'Thanks, Gwen.'
'Don't mention it,' she responded. He could hear the warm affection in her voice and smiled faintly in response. 'And you, Captain, should get some rest as well,' she admonished. 'I know you say you don't sleep but you're beginning to look like something the cat dragged in.'
'I do not!' Jack said, affronted. 'You can't mess with perfection, Gwen.'
'You can after the week we've had,' she retorted. 'All right, do what you want. You're a grown man!' Ianto heard the door creak open and Gwen's muttering retreating as she closed it behind her. Jack chuckled softly and Ianto could hear another door closing somewhere down the hall. He was feeling a might bit better. At least he wasn't going to chuck it all, he thought to himself.
'Hey, scootch,' Jack said in a low voice. It look Ianto a minute to understand what he meant, but a moment later he moved over and felt the edge of the mattress sag as Jack climbed up beside him. 'There we go, nice and cozy.' He lay on his side, still looking at the PDA. Ianto wasn't looking at him but could hear him poking at the display, since it was right next to his ear.
'Please tell me you're not wearing your boots in bed,' Ianto asked him.
'Nah,' Jack said absently. 'They're hanging off the side. Hmmmm.'
'What?' Ianto asked. He opened his eyes but the room was dark. Turning his head he could see part of Jack's face in the glow of the PDA screen. 'Find something?'
'Not yet,' Jack said. He glanced over and saw that he was being watched. Making a decision, he put down the PDA though it still illuminated enough for Ianto to see his expression. 'That's enough for now. Feeling better?'
'A bit,' Ianto told him. 'Thank you for today. I don't think I could have gotten through that without you.' The two men stared at one another for a long moment, a lot left unsaid between them.
'That's why we're a team, Ianto. I would never ask you to do something like that on your own,' Jack said with a smile. He reached up and stroked Ianto's hair. 'Get some rest. We're not going to be able to do anything right now, and I need you at your best.' He wrapped himself around the other man before reaching somewhere over Ianto's head. A moment later Ianto heard a click and assumed that Jack had used his vortex manipulator to lock the door. 'There, alone at last.'
'Mmmm,' Ianto responded sleepily. He was past the nausea now but at the stage of total exhaustion. 'Yeah, just us and several platoons nearby.'
'Now that sounds like my idea of a perfect night,' Jack chuckled. He waited for a response and when he didn't receive one he held up the PDA as a torch. Ianto was asleep. Jack smiled fondly. It was probably a good thing. At least this way he didn't have to deal with an indignant response to his rather cheeky comment. Shifting about in the narrow hospital bed, Jack went back to work. He wasn't at all tired, and with luck by the time the others woke he might have tracked down the Adoliat. He felt a shiver of anticipation at the thought. The time for chasing shadows was over and they'd finally be able to stop whatever it was that was going on.